December Pocket Card with Topflight Stamps

Today's Mixed Media Monday is a December pocket card for Topflight Stamps. This week the team is all about Christmas! Do you participate in December Daily, Journal Your Christmas or make a mini album for your Christmas & Holiday Memories? Making some cards ahead of the holiday makes these types of books easier to create. 

 This could even be the cover of a card for sure. Just love the attitude of this owl. I had a play with lots of products this week. As always the supply list is below & if you pop over to Topflight Stamps there are photos of all the products. Using the code karenbearse also gets you 12% off your order. 

Let's Go!

Start off with a stencil like this brilliant one by PaperArtsy & some spray inks. I used Prism Glimmer Mist which has a wonderful shimmer in it. Spritz randomly keeping the colors a bit separate. 

 

 

Making a few different backgrounds gave me a few different options. I used the leftover ink from the process above, flipped the stencil on a piece of card stock & just swirled it around to get the excess paint off. I call this smooshing.

Here a few of the backgrounds I ended up with. The smosh page I also cleaned off my stencil using a baby wipe. This added a pretty cool background to some of the white space. That was the one I choose for my card. 

Here you can see the background was cut out 4x6 & corners rounded. Added some background stamping using Red Brick & script stamp. Stamped out the brilliant Katzelkraft owl & fussy cut, note I cute off the feet to make it easier & stamped them back in on the background. The hat is so fun & is from the IndigoBlu Skullduggery set. You can also see the idea of placement for the leaf stamp. 

 

Let's walk through the rest of the card. The owl was painted with watercolor. You can see that I stamped on the background & placed my cut out on top so the feet are back. The cap was colored with markers. I made a sketchy border with a pen & colored in with the same markers from the hat.

 

 

The leaf was heat embossed using Seth Apter's Weathered Gold, gives a nice pop & metallic look to the piece. I added some of the brand new AALL & Create washi tape. Just adds that mix media look to the card. Finally a quote! This was from Visible Image set which has quite a few quotes with different fonts. It was stamped and the edges rolled then distressed with Roasted Coffee. Thanks for joining me today!! I hope you get the chance to get inky. 

 

Supplies:  

• Katzelkraft Owls

• PaperArtsy Stamps by Sara Naumann ESN41 

•  "        "  Stencil by Darcy Marshall PS117
  

• Visible Image Sentimental Christmas   

• IndigoBlu Skullduggery

• AALL & Create Washi Tape #1 , #2 , #3 , #6 

  Seth Apter- Weathered Gold Embossing Powder by Wow
  

• Glimmer Mist in Apple Green, Glamour Gold, Cherry Pie. 

• Prism Inks in Roasted Coffee & Red Brick.
  

Christmas in July Topflight Stamps Style.

Hello Topflight Stamps fans, this week we are having Christmas in July!! This Mix Media Monday's project can be used many different ways. Just by changing the colors to reds & greens along with more Christmas like stamps this project could be turned into a Christmas card, gift tag, ornament, mini album... so many possibilities!
*Affiliate- some of these companies have given me product to use, play & experiment with. The ideas are my own but I tend to work with companies whose products I like so enjoy the inspiration.
**some of these links are affiliate, I receive a small percentage from the company at no cost to you. This helps me deliver free content!

 I was feeling very "Jingle All The Way" and wanted to use the newest diecut release by Eileen Hull as my base cause is is so cute & versatile. It was so much fun to make this project. For now it is a tag but I can change it into a mini album which I am tempted to do.   

Let's Get Inky!

I cut my pieces out of mat board to give my project some stability. This makes the project versatile as I don't know what I will be using it for yet. The diecut also comes with a zig zag twill type piece & 4 sizes of hearts. 

Next up was some color. I chose 3 Fresco Finish paints & blended Aquamarine & Blue Lagoon to make a 4th color. This way I know they will be the right tone. Then painted the colors light to dark in a stripe pattern.

Time To Emboss!

I knew that I wanted to add snowflakes using this great background stamp by darkroom door- Snow Flakes. Embossing is the perfect way to bring a dynamic look to the stamped image. I chose a few colors of Eileen's embossing & the embossing fluid from Wow.

The mitten once completely dry, was embossed using Seashell Ivory. This is a finer powder & did a great job to highlight the snowflakes. To emboss I stamped the snowflake with distress oxide in Faded Jean. This works for embossing as it has a higher wet time, but a bit of stickiness to keep the powder in place. The bonus is any place you miss with the powder, still gets the stamp image. I like to intentionally miss some spots or brush the embossing off to create that effect. 

This is one of my favorite techniques & I use it a lot but the results are so different depending on how it is done. For example here it was used with pattern paper 7 clear embossing to create the cover of a mini book.  The full tutorial is here.

The twill piece was covered with the emboss brush & heat set using Polished Silver. These Molten Dimension powders are chunky & need a heavier embossing ink. See how the silver is so thick & real looking? My quote was simply stamped out & covered with Glistening Glass to get that epoxy look. Use an embossing pad for this with archival ink so the images don't smear. A few Diamond Sparkles were added to jazz it up. 

Love This Owl.

Time to add my focal image which is the awesome owl, it comes in a set of owls- so fun. 

The image was stamped with Archival ink & colored using watercolor paint. The hat was colored with alcohol ink markers so it would pop. The fluff of the hat was embossed with White Wonder which gives it this chunky cool look. Lastly the ribbon & chain with jingle bells was added.

Thanks so much for joining me today! Stay safe & sane- make art! Hop over to Topflight Stamps to see all the awesome products that were used on this project. Remember karenbearse saves you 12% *some restrictions apply.

Supplies:

•  darkroom door Sentiment Stamp- Christmas 
• darkroom door Background Stamp- Snow Flakes
  
• darkroom door Rubber Stamps- Lots of Labels
• Katzelkraft-  Ktz237 (Owls)
• Eileen Hull Emboss - Glistening Glass, White Wonder, Seashell Ivory
• Eileen Hull diecut by Sizzix- Mitten Box
• Fresco Finish Paint in Mermaid, Aquamarine & Blue Lagoon.  
• Wow Emboss Liquid
• Diamond Sparkles- Blue
• ** to see the product photos you can also go to my TF blog post here.  

My Favorite Book Halloween Page

Hello Topflight Stamps fans, it is Thursday so it is time for my blog post! Today I am playing with My Favorite Book & I have made a Halloween page. 

Halloween circa 2006

This is a photo from 11 years ago! How time really flies. We always love going out Trick or Treating & dress up as a family. I wanted to put a larger photo on this page so I cut it to fit across 2 pages. I left a slight gap in the middle so the pages will close properly.  This photo was edited using the Rhonna Designs app on my phone.  

My memory journal page started as a wipe up page in my book so it was almost ready to go. All I had to do was add some stencil with paste to create the perfect background. The Katzelkraft stamp set has the just the right amount of spooky! You can find it here.

 Pumpkin Head

I love being able to recycle & I thought the Tim Holtz packaging was pretty cool with the spider web & distressed look. It made for a great tag. All I had to do was add washi to cover up the words, Distress Oxide some paper & heat emboss it. The spider charm was just painted with copper so it would show up more.

 It's French!

Love this title! As a French Canadian this is the perfect title for my page. These stamps are really crisp & detailed. I used Memento in Tuxedo Black, really love this font. This year I am going as Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas- even though my kids are older we still dress up. I hope you have a spooky fun Halloween with lots of nummy candy & most importantly some wonderful memories! Until next time...BOO!

Spooky Halloween Fun on a Tag

Today I am playing with Topflight Stamps, making a spooky Halloween Tag. I love this holiday it is my 2nd favorite. I also love making tags so perfect combo. 

Spooky Tag Fun!

Here is my cool tag using Katzelkraft stamps. I also recently bought the Tim Holtz Stamp Platform, mainly for kitting for my classes. However I played with it for the 1st time on this tag & realized even mix media artist need this!! I will show you how the Stamp Platform saved my tag. I am also entering this tag in the Craft Stamper Magazine challenge site, this months challenge can be found here if you want to play along. 

First off here is the stamp set Halloween I got to play with. You can buy this from Topflight as well as Tim's platform. More on that as we play!

 Let's Distress a Tag. 

 Starting with tag spritzed lightly with water, spray your colors on the tag. I was worried that these colors would make mud together because of the purple so I did a test first on a piece of paper. Where the purple & yellow mixed it was muddy but a nice espresso color so I went with it. 

Opps Craft Fail...

After adding some washi tape I heat embossed the haunted house. My idea was to add some alcohol ink to darken it some & doodle. As I started working on it I realized a lot of the cool detail that makes the stamp special was being lost as the emboss is too thick for it to show. So I flipped the tag over & started again. I can always add a piece of pattern card stock on this side to hide my boo boo. 

Stamp Platform Time

At this point I pulled out this handy dandy device. You can find it here at Topflight Stamps. Rather then me try & explain how it works how about I let Tim show you in this video you can find here. 

Just like in the video, opened the tool & placed my tag using the magnets. Next step is to position the stamp on the tag & bring the top acrylic piece down & push so the stamp adheres to the acrylic. 

After opening the tool lid & inking my stamp I brought the lid down and pressed as if it was a normal acrylic block, just like in the video. After lifting the lid I realized that my stamp was resisted by the washi tape as it has a slick finish & bold image. Normally this would be a problem that potentially would cause me to start over. Not with the Platform however! I simply removed the washi tape. See the blank spot where the washi was on right side pic above?

 I simply brought the lid down again & re-stamped. The image is crisp & much darker. YAY!!!! Total craft save! It is hard to tell in the above pic how well this 3x stamped image worked but you can sure see it below.

Now let's add to this tag! Using the eye & bat stamps with some heat emboss helped the images to pop. I really wanted the bat to show up so why not yellow, this is art after all not real life. Who says a bright yellow bat could not be living on my imaginary tag? Inking in some details using paint & gel pens also really bought this tag to life.  

Time to add my stamped, distressed & pop dotted title. Love the details on this title! Finished this tag with ribbons & some charms. Thanks so much for joining me today & please head over to the Topflight Blog & leave me a comment, it would be much appreciated! I hope you have some time to play today!

Cute Snowman Envelope with Tag at Topflight

Hello Inky Friends, I am here today with a cute snowman vellum envelope that has a Christmas tag inside. The Topflight team are having Christmas in July & I got to play with Katzelkraft stamps. This will probably end up in my December Daily but it also might end up in my #the100dayproject. Don't you love having options?! 

Christmas in July with Katzelkraft

Starting with a tag & blending Distress Ink on it along with a bit of stamping. The tag was then embossed & the snowflakes were hit with Silver Spark Metallic Lustre. The envelope has this cute frosty snowman on it. I started by making a snow hill on the envelope with Soft Fallen Snow emboss by Emerald Creek. Then I did a couple of patches using Winter's Mistake. I love this heat emboss powder because it has a real fluffy, shimmery snow like look to it.
 

 

Snowman using Emerald Creek Emboss Powder & Marvy Uchida

Hard to get a good pic to show how fabulous & shimmery my frosty friend is. On a separate piece of paper I heat embossed him in Onyx Frost 1st which gave me the outline. Next I used the perfect medium brush to color in the snow bits and did a 2nd layer of embossing using Winter's Mistake. Hot Tip: brush off any white that gets on the black before heating to make your image clearer. If the white embosses on black simply color it with a marker to turn it back to black. I cut him out & then it was time for some marker action.

Blending Alcohol Markers

Here I am testing out what marker colors to use. These markers are alcohol based & great for blending. Monsieur Snowman was adhered with foam tape to give him a bit of dimension. 

 The finishing touches were a star paperclip & some fibers for the tag. Now my envelope is all ready to go!! Thanks for joining me today! I hope you get the chance to get an early start on your Christmas Merry!

Topflight Stamps by Katzelkraft :

• Christmas Trees 
• Snowman

Other Supplies:

• Emerald Creek Emboss Powder 
• Marvy Uchida Le Plumme Markers- O835, B700, BV736, BV738
• Ranger Distress Ink- Fired Brick, Peeled Paint, Cracked Pistachio

Christmas In July Project Life Card

This week on Topflight Stamps we are playing with Christmas. Yes that is right, time to start thinking of snow, snow, snow! Why you ask, in July? This is the time the stores need to put their orders in so you can get your happy snow globe stamps in the fall. I was designing this and it was 100oF- yikes, steaming Jingle Bells. 

Project Life Card with Katzelkraft

Mini Tutorial~

I participate in Project Life. At Christmas I tend to attempt to make a December Daily. Both involve making journal cards so that is what I decided to do this week. I started with a Becky Higgins card & added some stamping with Distress Ink, at the top & bottom of my card.

Christmas Tree Stamps at Topflight

Next step was to stamp and cut out the wonderful doodle Christmas trees by Katzelkraft with archival ink. Putting Distress Ink on a craft sheet & using it as paint to color the image followed. A quick swipe of color on the background along with some shimmer from A Wink Of Stella pen gave my trees a nice backdrop. I cut out the Merry Christmas and adhered it on the trees, then used pop dots to adhere. All I need is the journaling! Pop on over to the Topflight Blog to get your Christmas going & check out all the cool Christmas designs the team is doing this week. 

Topflight Stamps Design Team Debut!!!

I am so excited to be here with my 1st Topflight Design Team post. For those of you who are familiar with my work I love stamps & use them in almost everything I do. I thought I would begin with a project that I can add more stamping to as time goes on. What better way than Eileen Hull's Passport Book Die!! This is one of my favorite dies and will be a great way to showcase some stamps in an art journal way.   

Here is my Passport Book!! 

As this book is a WIP (work in progress) I am leaving binding the book until the end. For now using rubber bands to keep the signatures in is a great way to easily pull my pages in & out while working on the inside. The best part is you can play along with me & make a book too!!! 

 

Starting with corrugated cardboard was a happy recycle way to go. Simply cut out 2 covers & a spine. Next pull up some of the cover making sure to peel the layer that covers the rounded part of the board. You can easily see this by looking at the side of the board. Cover with gesso or whatever color of paint you want. I wanted a white surface so my stamping would show up. Use an old gift card or spatula & scrape the paint on leaving some of the card showing through.

Once the paint is dry stamp your focal image on the cover for placement. I knew I wanted a hummingbird- one of my favorite birds on the cover, conveniently Darkroom doors has a great set! I also knew I wanted to cover the entire cover in UTEE to protect it & create a cool slick surface. That meant whatever I used to stamp in, had to be permanent. I decided to go with Dylusions Paint as I also wanted bright colors. 

I put a bit of paint with a spatula on my craft mat and spread it kind of flat. Then dabbed my stamp into it to get good coverage. Use different colors & randomly stamp over project, drying paint in between colors. Use leftover paint with a baby wipe & paint some of the inside pages so not to waste paint. This gives some of your blank pages a bit of color to start. I am adding in different types of paper from card stock, watercolor, index cards etc.

The white background was too stark for me so I used a trick to cover the pages with UTEE. Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel is basically a thick clear embossing powder & perfect for this technique. When covering large areas I like to use a color spray for easy coverage, so much faster than an ink pad! Spritz covers with Squeezed Lemon Distress Spray & cover with UTEE. Shake off excess and heat set. 

The result is a water looking shine that helps protect the cover. Using a light color like yellow allows the painted images to show loud & clear. My hummingbird was heat embossed and cut out then adhered with a strong glue. 

The spine was painted with the Dylusions Paint and on the outside was stamped in copper paint. Once dry I added the UTEE the same way as the cover leaving the edges bare. This is where the Super Tape goes.  The spine can be adhered on the outside to look like a regular book or the inside which is what I did. That gives me more space on my cover to work with. 

Inside my spine was heat embossed with stamped images. Cover the inside of your book with paper before you adhere the spine. To finish my cover I added a jewelry latch & chain to help keep my book closed. 

I slipped the few pages I have from my leftover paint as above in. My book is ready to add more pages as I go! Thanks so much to Topflight for choosing me to be apart of their design team. Hop on over there & subscribe to the newsletter (left hand side of home page) to keep up to date on all the great sales & new releases.

Supplies:

Topflight Stamps:

-Darkroom Door: Hummingbirds, Grunge Marks

-katzelkraft: Background Clouds, Fireworks

Other Supplies:

Eileen Hull Passport Die by Sizzix

Emerald Creek Emboss- Oil Rubbed Bronze, Charred Gold, Hammered Metal.

Ranger- Dylusions Paint, UTEE, Distress Spray, Embossing Dabber

Thermo*O*Web- Super Tape